Tag Archives: Essie

Nail Art: Alternating Polka Dots

I’m kind of crazy about polka dots. Not only when it comes to nail art…I wear alot of polka dots. Along the way I’ve done several polka dot manicures, including an Auburn themed manicure and the ever popular Neon Polka Dots manicure. But this polka dot manicure is a bit different.

For this manicure I did alternating polka dots and base colors. So for half of the nails I used a base of Ulta Snow White and Essie Bazooka for the polka dots. On the other nails I used Essie Bazooka over Ulta Snow White as a base and Ulta Snow White for the polka dots.

I loved this manicure. I loved it so much I even tweeted a picture of it. It was so much fun to wear and I was constantly getting compliments on it. But the best thing about this manicure is the combinations are endless!

As usual, I did not use a dotting tool. I just used the large end of a bobby pin. Worked perfectly!

There is another swatch below the jump.

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Essie Bazooka

Lights! Camera! Action! Bazooka? Yeah, I don’t get it. But, despite me being dense, or Essie just not making any sense, Bazooka is part of Essie’s Summer 2012 Lights, Camera, Action neon collection. I spotted the collection at CVS and really wanted all 4, but I settled on just getting Camera along with Bazooka.

Essie describes this polish as a bright orange neon. Straightforward and accurate. Much like camera, this isn’t an in your face neon. It’s bright but it’s not quite as bright as your normal traffic cone orange a la SpaRitual Flashback.

Application was on par for a neon polish. The formula is a bit thin and has almost a jelly feel to it so I did need 3 coats to got an opaque color.

The best way to get the most impact out of any of Essie’s neon polishes it to wear them over a white polish like I did with Camera here.

I really love this polish. After wearing it a couple of days I tried doing a tiger stripes manicure with Bazooka as the base. It turned out ok….there is a swatch of that below the jump. After that I ended up doing some nail art I really loved with this polish. I’ll do a post on it in a few days but here’s a sneak peek over on TDV’s Twitter page :)

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One Neon Polish Four Different Ways!

Neon is a huge trend for this Spring and Summer. And I have decided to embrace it! Nail polish is always a great inexpensive and temporary way to incorporate trends into your style. But if you’re anything like me you get really bored of wearing the same nail polish color all the time. So I thought a post on how to wear a single polish 4 different ways might be something some of you find useful. Plus, I just kind of like to share different ways I wear my favorite polishes :)

The polish I used for this post is Essie Camera. It’s from Essie’s latest collection and I just love it. So of course I wanted to use it in as many way as possible but lets be honest…most of the time I’m pretty lazy when it comes to my nails. I didn’t want to do anything crazy that required alot of tools or talent, just simple ways to stretch a single neon polish’s use.

The first, and most obvious, way to use a neon polish is to just use it on its own. Neon polish by itself is certainly a statement but this certainly isn’t the most fun or unique way to wear neons!

The second way I like to wear neons is as the base for a half moon manicure. This works especially well when paired with white. Colorblocking is another huge fashion trend and this is a way to incorporate that into nail art (and I use nail art very loosely…half moon manicures are super easy to do).

A way to wear neons that is really growing on me is using a neon polish for the tip of a French manicure. I KNOW! The French manicure may be the only thing dubbed French I don’t just love. But adding a thin line of neon to the tip of the nail is actually really fun and a more subtle way to wear the neon trend.

The last way I like to wear neons is not for the faint of heart. Neon polishes are bright all on their own. But a way to make them SUPER bright is to use a thin coat of your favorite neon polish over a white polish. My camera doesn’t capture how bright what’s happening on my pinky nail really is.

I’m always looking for fun ways to wear neons. Leave your ideas in a comment!

Essie Camera

Yes. I am here with yet another coral polish. I understand I have issues. But coral is just so pretty! This particular coral is from Essie’s Summer 2012 Poppy-Razzi collection. I saw the display over the weekend at CVS and just couldn’t walk away without 2 of the 4 polishes.

Camera is a gorgeous bright pink leaning coral creme. When I say bright it’s not in your face neon bright like say SinfulColors Pink, but it is bright.  Brighter than the swatch indicates.

The formula was good. It’s highly pigmented and has a slight jelly feel to it. The formula reminded me an awful lot of OPI Big Hair…Big Nails. I used 3 coats and did have a slight visible nail line, but to the naked eye it is not near as apparent as in the swatch. This dried to a semi matte finish, so a shiny top coat is definitely required!

Overall I’m really happy with this nail polish. I like that it’s bright and fun but not so bright that it looks kind of crazy. Especially on a pale person like me!

And just something kind of random….I don’t love the Essie retail bottle. But, what I do love is that the name of the polish on the bottle actually matches the nail polish color. I can’t be the only one that likes that, right? If you have no clue what I’m talking about there is a picture below the jump!

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Celeb Nails: Christina Aguilera on The Voice

I’m a bit of a Christina Aguilera stan if I’m being honest with myself and have been since her Genie in a Bottle days. So despite not being a huge fan of reality television I watch The Voice religiously every week. My favorite part of that show is finding out what Christina is wearing. On Monday night she looked lovely in an Alexander McQueen dress, gorgeous makeup and on her nails…Essie Wicked!

Wicked is a classic color that should have a spot in everyone’s collection. I even included it in my 5 Polishes Every Girl Should Own post! By this point I’ve done several posts on this polish on The Daily Varnish, so I’m not going to rehash it here. For info on the color and application of this polish check out this post.

Wicked has been going strong since the 90s and it’s not going anywhere. Christina proved you can even rock it in the Spring.

For those who are interested…my bottle of Wicked is a black  label Essie aka prior to them going B3Free. There is a picture of the label below the jump.

Anyone else love The Voice? I have a clear favorite but I won’t spoil it for anyone who is behind on this season :)

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Alli’s Favs: Essie Turquoise & Caicos

This polish is like the problem child you can’t help but love. And I do love it for the color but the formula is a nightmare.

Turquoise & Caicos was originally released in Essie’s Summer 2010 Resort Collection, but has since been added to the permanent line. Essie describes it as “a flirty and pretty tropical aqua.” I don’t know about flirty but the color certainly is pretty!

Sadly the formula is just awful. It is SO thin and runny. If you aren’t careful it will pool around the cuticle so very thin coats are necessary. I used 4 coats to finally get an almost opaque color.

Why Turquoise & Caicos is a favorite: The color and the color only. It’s just pretty! And with my skintone pastels aren’t the easiest things to pull off but this looks great even on me. If you don’t want to deal with the formula issues (which I totally don’t blame you!) I do have some polishes that are close in color. Wet n Wild megalast I Need a Refresh-Mint (tad more white and blue), Avon Jade (a bit more green), Orly Ancient Jade (sightly muted) and SinfulColors Open Seas (also slightly muted).

Alli’s Favs: Essie Mesmerize

You know why I love this polish? Because the entire time I’m wearing it I have Ja Rule and Ashanti Mesmerize stuck in my head! Ok, not really. Well, sort of. It does always make me think of that song but that’s not necessarily a good thing!

Mesmerize was originally released in Essie’s Spring 2009 collection but has since been added to their permanent line. It is a gorgeous slightly bright true blue creme that applies beautifully. It’s one of the few Essie polishes I have that really requires only 2 coats.

Why Essie Mesmerize is a favorite: The color! Entirely the color. It’s just gorgeous. Despite being a non traditional nail color it looks super chic. The fabulous formula is just a bonus!

Check out some of my other favs here :)

Alli’s Favs: Essie Damsel in a Dress

I can’t believe this is my first Essie post in my Alli’s Favs series! Truthfully, my Essie shelf is one of my favorites. But anyways, Damsel in a Dress was originally released as part of Essie’s Winter 2008 The Color Fits collection but is now part of Essie’ permanent line.

Essie describes Damsel in a Dress as “oh-so-deep iridescent currant.” Iridescent is the perfect word to describe this polish. It’s a very deep reddish purple with tiny silver microglitter. But the microglitter kind of sits on top of the polish giving it that iridescent appearance. I really love this polish. It reminds me quite a bit of a slightly less red version of OPI Yes…I Can-Can!.

The only negative with this polish is the formula. It’s not extremely thin, but it is thin and therefore you have to be very careful to avoid bald spots.

Why Essie Damsel in a Dress is a favorite: Mainly the name, but also the finish. I love the play on such a classic theme as damsel in distress and quite frankly I’d rather be a damsel in a dress! Also, the finish is pretty unique. I don’t have another polish in  my collection with quite the same finish.

Four down, 85 to go!

 

 

To see other Alli’s Favs click here

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Essie – Pure Pearlfection

When I first saw Essie’s Luxeffects I have to admit I really wasn’t all that impressed, but after seeing swatches I decided I had to have two: Pure Pearlfection and As Gold as it Gets.

I decided to layer Pure Pearlfection over two coats of Splash of Grenadine (From the 2010 Resort Collection that also included Lapis of Luxury and Turquoise and Caicos). I think the result speaks for itself.  It gives the polish a completely new look – and I absolutely love it. I prefer shimmers to cremes and I can’t wait to try this over… pretty much everything I own.

I actually tried As Gold as it Gets over Turquoise and Caicos first but ended up with the worst bed nails imaginable – I can’t even post the picture. But I’m going to try that look again since it looked amazing… before I went to bed.

Did you pick up any other Luxeffects? Thoughts?Also, if you’d like to see this over another polish just let me know!

 

Perfect Pair: Essie Go Overboard & OPI Yodel Me On My Cell

I’m totally in love with Essie Go Overboard. It’s just a perfect yes it’s still winter but I’m dying for spring polish. Anyways, I’ve been wearing it alot lately so I was looking for a way to spice it up. Thanks to my handy dandy new nail polish rack all my OPI polishes were on display. I spotted OPI Yodel Me On My Cell and thought it would be the perfect polish to add some sparkle to Go Overboard!

I used 2 coats of Go Overboard and 1 coat of Yodel. I quite like the way it turned out. Yodel didn’t change the color much but it added just the right amount of sparkle.

Check out the macro shot below the jump!

 

 

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